Meet an Expert: Carol Anderson, Parts Technician

Working at Zip’s AW Direct for nearly two decades, Carol Anderson has had the opportunity to visit with tow operators and wrecker drivers from all over the place. Always up for a good road trip, she gets to hear about different parts of the country she may not have visited before. It’s an unexpected perk of working in the parts department here.

“I really enjoy talking to all the different people from across the country and hearing their stories,” she said. “It’s also rather interesting to listen to some of them call parts by different names, but I can usually figure out what they’re talking about. In the end, there’s a lot of satisfaction in making them happy and getting them what they need to get going again.”

Carol is the latest employee profile in our ‘Meet an Expert’ series at Zip’s. She joined us back in 2007, and as an experienced Parts Technician, she said she enjoys solving problems for her customers, whether that’s finding the right part for their repair or recommending a new product to remedy their situation.

A lifelong resident of New Hampton, IA, Carol works out of Zip’s main campus in town. She describes her role as fast-paced, and she is amazed at how much the company has grown over her two decades here, both in terms of Zip’s footprint and also the expanding catalog of parts since the company’s acquisition of AW Direct in 2018.

Becoming the largest towing accessories retailer in the industry in North America, Zip’s AW Direct now offers more than 65,000 products from more than 400 vendors. To keep up, the company has greatly expanded its building space in the New Hampton area. Staying on top of everything can be a challenge, Carol noted.

“The fast pace that everything is moving is such a big change from when I first started here. We have sooo much product here that one cannot know everything there is to know about it all,” she admitted. “So we rely on our vendor contacts to get the answers we need. This may not always happen in a timely manner, and that makes things tough between us and our customers, rightfully so.”

But finding the right part outweighs any frustration in her role, and putting a smile on her customer’s face is very rewarding. She said she also likes working in the family atmosphere at Zip's. Despite growing to more than 210 employees, the family-owned company maintains a small-town atmosphere by hiring locally, often recruiting employee’s family members to join them.

“Our growth here has been unbelievable. The size of the buildings, the properties, the inventory, the people,” said Carol, who counts a brother-in-law, a niece and a nephew among her family members working here. “Even though we have expanded the family, I feel the company is still concerned about us as individuals. I believe it is a positive and happy environment.”

When not at work, Carol said she “loves spending time with family and friends. Plus, I’m always up for a good road trip.”